Coworking spaces keep startups in Tier-II cities in the loop

AHMEDABAD: A growing number of coworking spaces in tier-II cities like Indore, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Udaipur, Jaipur, Kota, Surat, Pune and other cities has boosted the startup ecosystem. Startups who seek an ecosystem are able to create cocoon communities within this coworking spaces.

"Mushrooming of coworking spaces in smaller cities is due to the rise of startup aspiration and a sign of healthy and growing ecosystem," says Jatin Chaudhry , founder, eChai, an Ahmedabadbased startup community that has presence in 40 Indian cities, with major presence in smaller cities.

Currently, more than 10 coworking spaces like LiveSpaces, Project Café, DoubleO, 5B Colab, Working Company , Daftar, Felxi Business Hub, Venture Café, Uncubate, Open Xcell Technology Centre, 1947, Cohere and CIIE's Ideapad are operational in Ahmedabad. While one ­Glocal Coworking Space ­ is operational in Rajkot and another, Spaceplexx, recently started in Surat.

"It's a cocoon community of entrepreneurs and the co-working space is an Oasis for them as this space allows them to network with like-minded people and share their expertise," says Vishwam Parekh, owner of LiveSpaces, a co-working cum co-living space for budding entrepreneurs and startups. "We started two coworking space six months back in Ahmedabad and was completely occupied in a month. We are soon coming up with a third space," says Shriya Damani of coworking space DoubleO.

Similarly, in Rajasthan, Jaipur got five coworking space ­ Startup Oasis Coworking, Wired Hub, Think Space, Suits Café and Physpace and a few more are on its way . Recently , Udaipur too got its coworking space ­ The Indian Network. Even Kota, a small city in Rajasthan known for its large number of coaching classes, has its own coworking space in WeCan. "The way Jaipur ecosystem has picked up in past three years, people do not want to restrict themselves in silos but want to work in a collaborative environment where they find higher energy and like-minded individuals," says Dilnawaz Khan, manager at Startup Oasis.

Pratap Nair, who owns and runs his coworking space - The Hub -in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, says the city has got more than 500 startups which has come up gradually in last three years, but shortage of funds to leverage business in early stage, finding technology partners, working with like-minded and highly enthusiastic people and building network are some of the reasons that have made startups to prefer coworking space in tier-II cities.Currently, Indore has around four coworking spaces -Adited, Regus, Co-Work Space and The Hub.

Similarly, there are about 8 to 10 coworking spaces in Pune and more are opening up shortly.According to Harshit Desai, COO, Designgild, other players are The Mesh, Trios, Co-Works, The Daftar, The Entrepreneurship Facilitation Centre, Venture Centre, Regus and E-Loft.